Unfamiliar voice in unfamiliar role

Press, 30 September 1986, Page 3

Unfamiliar voice in unfamiliar role

CATHERINE HARRIS

“This is your captain speaking ...” If the voice is a woman’s, it will belong to Jan Everest, a former Christchurch woman who has become New Zealand’s first woman airline captain. Miss Everest, aged 37, took up her post in an Air New Zealand Fokker Friendship a little over a week ago. To her, however, it is a natural progression from her six years experience as a first officer in the airline’s Friendships and Boeing 7375. Speaking from her Auckland home yesterday, Miss Everest said there had been few difficulties

in slipping into the captain’s seat.

“I don’t think the public are particularly aware. They see two people get on the plane; one is a man and one is a woman and they probably assume he is the captain.” Her male colleagues had given her “a lot of support” and about the only difficulty she had found about working in a predominantly male domain was the uniform.

Never particularly comfortable in a tie or trousers, she designed her own uniform of a shirt and culottes and submitted it during an airline uniform review two years ago. It is now an acceptable option for the four women pilots employed by Air New Zealand.

Miss Everest, who was born in Westport, attended Linwood High School and got her first taste for flying at the age of 20. She enjoyed it so much that she got a job at Christchurch Airport and logged up hours of flying time after work. She then became an air hostess with the then National Airways Corporation but always her sights were on flying and in 1976 she applied for pilot training with N.A.C. She was turned down but continued to gain more flying experience and in

1978 became the first New Zealand commercial female pilot, flying a Cessna for Air Central. She was eventually accepted by Air New Zealand (formerly N.A.C.) in 1980. Once on the promotional ladder, it was only a matter of time before Miss Everest started the intensive 10week command course which, if she graduated, would make her a captain.

Was she hoping to encourage other women to take to the skies? To Jan Everest, the question is irrelevant.

“I am not there to provide role models. I believe that if people want to do a job and have a particular skill, that is what they should be doing.” That, she said, could be anything from digging ditches to having babies or flying.

Air New Zealand expects to appoint a second woman captain, Barbara Thomson, in about a year.